Zeke

Rich and Erin had there baby boy on March 2nd! It was such an exciting day because it was the girls birthday and we were awaiting his arrival. 13 hours from start to finish (I think). It went quick for us which was great but I don't know how quick it went for them! Anyway here are some pictures of their perfect little guy! Welcome Zeke!

Ezekiel George Psillos

"Zeke"

7 lbs. 10 oz. 20.5 inches

3/2/11 5:20 p.m.

What a cutie! Great job you guys! And great job getting him out Erin!

Wish I could hold this little man already. We are so happy for you and this awesome time. There is nothing like it. It's amazing. Enjoy it. We love you and are so happy that Zeke is here and healthy and safe. Good luck!

Hannah's Visit

Hannah came to visit us over her winter break. New York schools have a week in February and a week in April for spring break so she got to come for a week right before the girls birthday. We had so much fun having her here and like usual I slacked on the picture taking. My parents came after about a week to hang for a few days and take her home. We miss you guys. The girls can't stop talking about when we are gonna see them again.

After the girls finished painting, they got down while Colt was still eating. Apparently I wasn't paying enough attention and the paint was a little too close to him. He thought it looked more fun than his food. Eric and Hannah made a deal, she gets paid .25 per day per kid for helping with them. Where were you on this one Han! Just kidding, I missed it too! We still owe you your money too!

Naked boy stealing someones drink. His favorite spot, standing on a chair hanging out at the table.

Grammy reading stories and loving these spoiled little girls! Mom and Dad took them to the Disney store for their birthday and they got to pick out what they wanted. They loved it of course! And not to anyone's surprise ended up with more stuffed animals and a stuffed doll this time!

They brought the girls these Adidas outfits and Rachel could not stop calling herself a soccer player. She was telling everyone she saw including strangers at the park that she was a soccer player. She kept telling me, "look at this soccer player" or "do you see a soccer player over here."

And yes that is the three crazy girls swimming in February! The pool water was about 66 and the air was 70 I think. Still way too cold for us normal people but they had fun. A reminder that I am totally not ready for pool season. It is a lot of work dressing and undressing and running to the bathroom and all that stuff. It will definitely be a long summer.

Hot tub time. Colt loved being able to go in with them. He is going to be a handful this summer with the pool.

Grandpa made these three smile and look in the same direction. I need him around all the time since I can't get a good picture of them anymore.

Colt 14 months.

Colt was Poppy's buddy. They hung out a lot this trip. Colt did say "pop pop" after a day of dad training him! We had the girls birthday party while they were here too, that is to come on another post. We had lots of fun as always and of course ate their favorites: Chis-fil-A, Pappasitos, and BBQ potatoes. We love just hanging out with you guys. Grammy never gets to stay up late with us. The girls sucker her into putting them to bed and she always crashes with them. They sure love you guys. And so do I. Thanks for coming. Love you!

Mom

Moms are just great. They are there for you your whole life. They put up with so much it is not even something I can list. Sometimes you are closer and some times not at close, but that you realize later was because you were a fool, but they are always there for you helping, guiding, supporting, encouraging you, and no matter what, loving you. This is my mom too. My mom is awesome and anyone who knows her knows what I mean. She really is a special person who helps me see who I want to be. I can't thank her enough for all she has done and all she continues to do for me each day with each visit, each phone call, and each text. Simple things, big things and all the in betweens. I know I am so blessed to have her in my life and I am so grateful for her. Lately I am most grateful for her ability to restore my sanity when I am sure it is no where to be found. Thanks mom. You truly save me. I love you.

Not So Fun

Is is too much to ask to not deal with pee or poop, besides changing diapers, for just like a few days? I thought we were getting too a good spot with that kind of stuff. The girls only have pee accidents when they are too involved in what they are doing to make it to the bathroom on time and even  in those cases it is on the floor in front of the toilet. But yesterday and today were different situations. Colt has had a bad diaper rash for a while so after he wakes up in the morning I let him air out for a bit without a diaper and it is totally working, rash gone. Anyway yesterday, he literally had it off for like two minutes and I looked over to see him walking around carrying his own poo. Uhhh.......gross. Seriously. Anyway, luckily it didn't get smeared all over anything. Now today I had the privilege of picking toy cars out of a toilet filled with pee. Lovely task. Someone forgot to flush and close the door so Colt decided it would be a fun place to put stuff. I know this won't be the last time I get to experience these kinds of situations but I can hope it will be! At most I have what....5 more years of it?

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Olivia and Rachel! The girls turned 4 years old today and just wanted to tell them how much we love them. We couldn't be more blessed. Plain and simple. There is nothing more I could ask for. You girls are both such special little girls that amaze me and help me to realize all of our many blessings. I am so happy to be your mom!

Four short years ago you were these little peanuts and now look at all you can do! It is quite an amazing plan our Heavenly Father has created. Happy Birthday sweet girls. We both love you so much!

And what an awesome birthday present you received! Your little Psillos cousin was born tonight on your birthday! Can't wait to put some pictures of him up! Congrats Rich and Erin!

Some Stuff

I've continued on my blog slacking even though I had promised not to do so. It makes me mad that I don't do it because I want to remember these times more. We have been watching the home videos of the girls when they were little and they are just too cute! Another little girl will be so fun! Colt is just too cute right now. If I weren't pregnant and growing quickly I would love for him to stay at this age. He is so fun to watch and he is just too cute. He laughs all the time and is always trying to keep up with his sisters, trying to say new things, climbing on everything, and generally being a trouble maker. But a so-cute-I-can't-help-but-smile-at-you kind of trouble maker!

This was from Valentine's Day. The girls loved the whole day with heart foods and candy galore. They loved following the trail of hearts from their room to their Valentine's surprise behind the couch. Eric and I both got to go get massages that day and we went out to a kid free dinner which is another excellent treat!

His new trick in the past few weeks is standing on the kitchen table. I left the room for a few minutes and when I got back I found him like this, and as you can see the girls were not too concerned. He wants to climb up all the time but now that I'm onto his game I can pretty much get him to stay standing on chair. He loves that too. He has snuck up a few times for special things that he has his eye on, like Livy's Valentine's chocolates!

On the way to Austin last weekend we stopped in Brenham at the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory for the tour and a treat! It was pretty cool seeing it all and mind blowing that we all eat so much ice cream when you see it being pumped out so fast. The girls were very interested and had lots of fun. Austin was beautiful and except for a water problem when we got there it was great after that. The weather was beautiful and I got a nice break during Colt's nap to read and sleep thanks to Eric!

He loved putting this hat on and off. Anything he has in his hands if you say "where's your hat" to him he tries to put it on his head as a hat. He tries to balance lots of things on that head of his!

He is getting so big. No more baby. That really makes me sad. I love his as a baby and don't want him to get bigger but it is also so awesome watching him learn new things and try to do so many things. He is a cup thief. He know which cups are not his and is always trying to steal them even though they have the exact same thing as his in them. He loves music and yells "yay!" and claps after each song in sacrament meeting. He is so smiley and loves to carry around anything. As long as he has stuff in his hands he is pretty happy. He loves going outside and throws little temper tantrums if we don't let him go. He stomps his feet and runs away and now we get the sad crying lip too. He keeps me laughing and smiling for sure. Even though he is trouble I can't get mad at him. I think it is the age. 

This is Rachel's latest activity, cutting her own hair. She gave herself a mullet. My mom said she was just trying to be like me. I had one too when I was her age, but not by my own choice, thanks mom! She took some off of both sides and I tried to live with it. She hasn't let me put her hair in ponytail or bow or headband in like a year so we went and got it cut off in the back to even it out. I think she looks adorable but she was not so sure. When she got it cut she said "why did she not cut it pretty?" Then she kept saying it was a boy hair cut. Poor kid. She wasn't happy about it but now she has accepted it. Everyone keeps telling her how cute she looks so she loves that!

The new do. Still shorter on one side than the other but it is much better. Cutie pie!

Hannah is here visiting now and all the kids are so excited. Colt loves Hannie as much as the girls and calls her "annah or nannah." When we were waiting at the airport for her the girls made sure to tell me not to let Colt play with Hannah because she is not his best friend, just their best friend. Livy has been Hannah's little shadow and they fight each night over who Hannah will sleep with that night. We went to the zoo one day but mostly the girls have just been playing a ton and doing some crafts. It has been fun and so nice to have an older kid who can watch Colt for a few minutes here and there.

Livy, Livy. I gave her a few pieces of turkey and then went out of the room, when I came back she helped herself to the whole tub. She has got handfuls of it and finished it all. Silly girl. The other day she asked me how babies come out. I paused a minute and she said "is it magic?" To which I said, yes it is magic! And she was so happy with that. About 2 weeks ago we went to the mall on a super windy day. I took the stroller out and placed it next to the car as I put Colt's shoes on while he was still in his car seat. I turned around and the stroller was gone. It was being blown way across the parking lot by the wind. So I set off on a chase but I was never gonna catch it before it hit the curb and couldn't go anymore. A nice couple saw this pregnant lady chasing what they thought was a stroller with a baby in it across the parking lot and drove over and stopped it for me. The funny part is that at dinner that night we were telling Eric what happened and Livy adds "And mom was so slow, she couldn't even get the stroller." It was a good laugh.

That is pretty much what's going on around here. We are getting ready for the girls 4th birthday! They are really excited!

Loving these Kids

I have been totally slacking on taking pictures of our crew but I am going to do better because I love having them once they are taken. This photo may seem simple but was a wonderful and rare moment in our house. All three of them were playing together! They were letting Colt near their stuff and he was actually picking some of it up and they didn't scream for me to come get him! It was a miracle. If only this one miracle occurred daily.

They other day Colt grabbed the remote and changed Rachel's channel. She said to me "This is why we shouldn't have babies around, all they do is cause trouble." I had to laugh.

Enjoying some outside time. Colt loves to be outside. He throws a hissy fit every time we let Pebbles out or in and don't let him out. Basically I need to do better at cleaning up the dog poo and then I can let him out to roam more I guess. We just don't have much for him to do out there besides eat stuff he finds on the ground. But he loves standing on the hot tub steps and hanging out with the girls, if they let him.

Trampoline time. Livy picked out these picture to put on here because she liked how their hair looked so crazy. Colt was on with them and he was flopping all over the place and loving every second of it. I guess it's ok now that he's over a year but what do I know? He was getting bounced around pretty good there. He was laughing so hard he and had so much fun.

Livy and Colt with her not so gentle play. Luckily he is a big sturdy boy and can take her play. He loves it too.

What a funny looking bump. It kind of looks flat on the front instead of round? Anyway, this is the babe at 20 weeks. At the appointment where I found out it was a girl I was 18.5 weeks and my uterus was measuring at 22 weeks so I'm a little bigger than I should be but the doctor said that is normal for me. I did that with Colt too. I am uncomfortable already almost all the time. And sleeping is already no fun with lots of position changes and waking up. But on the positive side I am starting to feel her move a lot. Last night I felt and saw her on the outside of my stomach which is so fun now that I can show the girls. They have been waiting and waiting for that.

Colt now loves to climb and stand on things, anything at all. He falls a lot because he can't stand still. He has to shake his head and shoulders or stomp his feet. And on things with wheels, that doesn't work too well. Chairs, the dishwasher, and the table are a few of his favorites.

We went to the zoo the other day. Livy loved the prairie dog thing again. Rae was a little scared of it this time. They loved the goats again. I got a video of Colt talking to them but I'm having trouble getting it up here.  

On the way out we got ice creams and Colt finished mine up for me and then took a snooze. How cute is he with his chocolate face!

I knew I was taking a risk letting them eat these big ice pops in the car but it worked out well. No mess really, except for their faces! That bruise on Livy's forehead is from a head on head collision with me at the park a few days earlier. It wasn't fun. Poor kid.

Rae, cat, and her thumb. We are going to have a problem separating these three.

He loved the zoo too and was such a good boy. He stayed in his stroller most of the time which was wonderful. He definitely keeps me moving, all the time. He is so busy and active. So I'm glad he sat so well for us. It made for a fun day. The girls are at such a good age I love it. It is so much easier to do things with them and they understand and enjoy so much too. We have our share of listening problems that I wish we weren't dealing with but other than that it is a great age that I am really enjoying. We've been watching home videos of the girls and it makes me cry thinking they will not be that age ever again. It's good in some ways but they couldn't have been any cuter than they were and so funny and adorable. I miss that stage. But I love this one too. I am so blessed to have these great children and I am going to really try and enjoy every stage we are in and not take it for granted. I know I did that sometimes and I didn't cherish every moment but I really want to. I am so happy to have those videos to look back at and help me remember. I love these kids. Can't wait to add another!